Sleepy Hollow without the Headless Horseman
by DawnTwilight
Summary: John takes the boys camping...sorta. Summer of Sam Love 2012, Day 14. I think I'm on a Wee'chester binge!


Notes: Summer of Sam Love 2012 Day 14

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"Dad? Dad? Dad! Dad?!" Sam waited outside the tent, because they had rolled in very late or early, depending on how you looked at it and he knew his dad was trying to sleep, but he had a really important question to ask.

The tent flap flipped up and his father's face appeared, his eyes puffy and sleep heavy and Sam felt a wee bit guilty for waking him…but just a little bit, because this was important. "What is it, Sammy?" and then his dad's eyes scanned the little clearing, taking in the other tents and campers and kids playing on a play ground not far away. "Where's you brother?"

"He's at the little store near the showers. We both got in this morning and dad the floors had moss growing on them! Dean made me wear flip flops in the actual shower…said he didn't want me to get fungus on my toes and that's just gross."

His dad sighed, probably wishing he hadn't asked Sam, because his Dad had told him he's sometimes too chatty, but Sam couldn't help it, so he went on, "and there are some kids over there," he pointed in the general direction of the play ground, "who say we can hang out with them today if you want to sleep, so can we…can we dad, because I would really like to play with them…there are some really neat wood piles and the kids say we can make all kinds of stuff outta 'em…or we can play king of the hill…so what do you say? We'll stay on the grounds and you can sleep and me and Dean will be out of your hair all day…can we, please?"

His dad blew out a breath, but before he could answer, Dean came hustling over, "Sam…did you wake Dad up?"

He looked at Dean and rolled his eyes, because while Dean was finishing up his shower, Sam told him he was gonna ask if they could hang out with Tommy and June and their friends. Dean had hummed at him, which Sam took to mean that he could. "I told you we would talk to him when he got up…we've been driving for days and Dad's tired."

"Its okay, Dean." Their dad flopped down on his belly and buried his head in his arms. "You and Sam can hang with your new friends until noon and then I want you to check in and let me know what you're doing. We'll see after that, okay?"

"Yes sir," Dean said and Sam echoed him for good measure.

"Okay, get outta here and let your old man sleep."

Sam ran off toward the playground before their dad could change his mind, but Dean grabbed his arm and steered him toward the car. "Listen Sammy, you can't do that okay?"

Sam didn't know what he wasn't supposed to do, but Dean had on his serious face, so he nodded his head.

"Dad works hard to take care of us, so we need to let him sleep when he can, okay?"

"Sure Dean…can I go now?"

Dean shook his head, "Not yet bud…Dad gave me some money this morning and I want to get some snacks for today."

Sam nodded, following his brother to the tiny store at the mouth of the camp ground. They were somewhere in Maryland, and the old rickety sign had an Indian on it, but the place was called Sleepy Hollow and it only cost five dollars a night if you were tent camping, so their dad thought it would be a great place to spend a few days between jobs, whatever that was.

The little store had a few rows of camping stuff, things people might need and then a few aisles of food items, firewood and starter fluid and Sam hoped that they would be able to make a camp fire later today, maybe roast some marshmallows.

"You can pick a candy, Sammy and I'll get you a pop outta the machine out front and then we'll see what Tommy wants to do."

"kay, Dee." Sam studied the candy display and decided on candy Dots. Dean thought they were gross, because he said you got little bits of paper on the backs of each dot, but Sam liked them…they were colorful and sweet and he could divide the strips out to have enough to last the whole weekend.

He put the package on the counter next to Dean's Peppermint Patty and Dean paid with a few quarters, carefully counting them out and asking for his change in dimes.

"That's gross, Sam," he told him as Dean handed him his own little brown paper bag the cashier had put his Dots in.

"Is not…you're gross…"

They went through the screen door, that banged behind them as it shut, setting off a little tinkling bell. The pop machine wasn't like anything Sam had seen before. It was short and square and filled with real glass bottles that you could return for a nickle deposit.

Dean put in one of his dimes from the change and the glass top released, letting Dean pull it up and a cool blast of air hit Sam in the face. It felt good, because it was the height of summer, but it wasn't so humid here, in the mountains, not with the higher altitude and tree cover.

Dean chose a Dr. Pepper and the bottle rolled toward the bottom for Dean to grab. There was a bottle opener attached to the machine and Dean popped the top, tossing the little metal lid into the near by bin. "What do you want, Sammy?"

He looked at all the flavors…the machine had at least fifteen different choices, like cream soda and root beer, birch beer and ginger beer, ginger ale and coca cola, but Sam was eyeing the orange and grape, debating between the two.

"Close your mouth before you eat a fly."

Dean's jab pulled him from his thoughts and he automatically said, "Shut up, Dean…I want grape…"

"You don't sound so sure, there…What happened to your orange kick…I mean every time in the last couple of months that dad has let us get soda you always go for the orange."

That was true, but lots of those times, the places didn't even have grape, so he nodded to himself and repeated, "grape, please."

Dean dutifully inserted a dime and lifted the lid, electing the grape and helping Sam pop the cap, but instead of tossing the lid into the bin, Sam pocketed it. "Can we go now…Tommy said there's a beach just across the road."

"A beach in the mountains?" Dean didn't look like he believed there was a beach, but Sam had already seen a sign.

"Yeah, so we should change into shorts, in case we want to get in the water," and then he ran back to their camp site. He could hear his dad snoring from his tent, but he didn't need to wake him again, because the lake was technically on the camp grounds, even if there was a road involved.

He ducked into his and Dean's tent and rummaged through his pack, knowing he had at least one pair of shorts in there. He found them and had his jeans off and one leg into the shorts before Dean even got back to the tent, taking one last bite of his mint and chocolate candy.

"In a hurry?" Dean asked, rolling up the foil wrapper and sticking it back into the brown bag before shoving it into his own pack.

"Yes," It wasn't like he got to make many friends or play all that much. "Now hurry on."

They found the brother and sister duo playing on a teeter-totter at the play ground. Tommy was older; closer to Dean's age but June was younger than Sam. She giggled as her brother bounced her up on her end and held her there, not letting the board come back down.

Sam couldn't imagine Dean playing with him like this…he would call Sam a girl and move off to the monkey bars or something, so Sam was a bit surprised when Dean offered to take one end of the see-saw.

"Umm…that's okay. I sorta want to go to the beach."

Tommy let his sister down and he said, "come on…I love the water."

They followed along behind the brother and sister and Sam watched Dean watching Tommy and he wondered what his brother was thinking about.

Sure enough, across the street and down a long trail, the trees opened to a huge clearing and they could see the lake. The water was still and clear, so clear it reflected the trees and boat slips like a mirror. They walked around the lake to the other side where there was a small sandy area. There was a life guard on duty and about a dozen other kids playing in the shallows. The guard told them not to go past the buoy if they couldn't swim because the lake was very deep beyond the roped off area.

The rest of the morning was spent playing in the water and swimming in the lake.

Sam didn't know how Dean knew, but sometime later his brother looked up to the sky, squinting at the sun and then announced that they needed to go check in with their dad.

Sam told Tommy that they would find them later and together he and Dean made their way back to the camp site. Their dad was up and changed, a pot of something boiled on a make shift holder over the open fire…Sam hoped it wasn't pork and beans, kidney beans, butter beans, lima beans or any other kind of beans.

A few sharpened sticks got Sam's attention while Dean went to see if their dad needed any help.

"Get washed up, Sammy," Dean called and Sam spotted a package of hot dogs in his brother's hands.

He ran to the communal restroom, smelling the slight odor of mildew, but he washed his hands in lukewarm water and hurriedly dried them on a few paper towels.

They had spent the night in their tents before, but this was the first real camp ground they had stayed in and it was shaping up to be his best camping trip ever.

Back at their tents, Dean was threading a hot dog onto the end of a stick, handing it to Sam to hold over the fire. Sam saw that it was indeed pork and beans in the pot, but at least he had a hot dog to go along with the beans and real hot dog buns too.

Sam only held his stick over the open flame for a few minutes. Unlike Dean and his dad, he didn't want any burnt spots on his hot dog. His dad passed him a small squeeze-bottle of mustard and Sam got a paper plate and a very small scoop of beans, super excited when his dad pulled out a bag of chips to go with his lunch.

Sam was nearly done by the time his brother put his shriveled and burnt dog on his own bun, using the mustard too and a huge helping of beans, smirking at Sam, because that meant they were in for a stinky night.

"Dad, can I go back and play with Tommy and June?"

His dad wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, swallowing a mouthful of hot dog, but nodded, "Sure, bud…just stay near by. I was thinking we can have breakfast for dinner…fry up some bacon and eggs and later I got some marshmallows for…"

Sam was so excited, he couldn't help but to launch himself into his dad's arms, hugging him tight around the neck, laughing when he heard his dad sputter a surprised yelp.

He missed his dad when he was gone…but he knew his dad's job was important, so he tried not to complain too much about not being able to do what other kids did, and now his dad was taking the time to do some fun stuff with him and Dean, and Sam was just so happy that they could.

"I'll be back in time for dinner…" and he took off to find Tommy.

His friends were eating lunch, too. Grilled cheese and tomato soup from the smell of it and Tommy's mom was feeding a little boy from a glass jar. His dad was poking at the fire, but smiled at Sam when he approached. Sam tried not to stare, but he had never seen a beard so full and long before in his life. Tommy's dad had the biggest beard Sam had ever seen.

"Hey, Sam." Tommy stood and met Sam before he could get too close. "I was gonna see about going out on a paddle boat on the lake…you want to come…Junie has to take a nap, so I got a few hours."

Sam agreed and over the next several hours they paddle boated, chased frogs, hiked through a trail around the camp grounds, played Cowboys and Indians with branches for guns and bow and arrows and before Sam knew it, the sun was setting.

"I gotta go, Tommy…but maybe we can play again tomorrow?"

"Maybe…I don't know how long we'll be here, but I'll come by if I can."

Sam was just making his way back to their tents when he heard Dean calling his name.

"I'm coming…" he called back and he could smell the bacon cooking before he even saw their camp site.

His dad was tending a frying pan and Dean was dragging some old lumber from one of the near by piles. "Whatcha doing, Dean?"

Dean looked up, startling like he had been caught doing something he shouldn't and then he shrugged his shoulders, "I was talking to a boy from a few sites over and he told me about how all the kids use this wood to make stuff, so…"

Dean didn't finish his sentence, but he did go back to dragging 2x4's.

Sam sat by the fire and watched his dad. The eggs looked good, not to runny, because that was icky and the bacon made his mouth water. He didn't get eggs all that often. If they were at a place for awhile, Dad would get them boxes of cereal and cans of soup…he hardly ever cooked for them, so this was something special.

'Dinner's up," his dad called and Dean dropped the last board and came over to eat.

The sun was down by the time they had finished and Dean went back to his lumber. Sam sat on a blanket near the fire, watching the bugs and the flames, waiting until his dad told them they could roast some marshmallows. Sam really wished they had a chocolate bar and some graham crackers, but he decided that he shouldn't be greedy and just be happy with what he had.

Dean called him over and he got up to see what his brother had been up to.

"Wow…is that?"

Dean's face split into a huge smile and he asked, "do you like it?"

"Yeah…it's cool." And instead of a pile of lumber, Sam could clearly see what his brother's creation was meant to be. There was a front and a back, two sides and two rows for seats, two chunks of wood blocks for the gas and brake peddle.

"All it needs," his dad said, "is a steering wheel." And his dad planted a stick on the ground on the left side in front of the first row and impaled a paper plate on the end of the stick. "Hop in and take her for a spin," his dad said and Sam stepped over the side and sat in the _driver's seat,_ took the paper plate in his hands and smirked when it actually turned!

Tomorrow, they might have to leave and hit the road again, but tonight, Sam was gonna drive Dean and his dad anywhere their imaginations wanted to go.

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End file.
